Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Aug 27, 2012 9:32AM EDT
Maersk Line has sold its 51 percent stake in Ocean Africa Container Lines to its South Africa-based partner Grindrod, which owns the remainder of the carrier.
The Danish carrier’s Safmarine unit didn’t say how much it received for its controlling stake in OACL, which operates feeder services between Durban, South Africa, and Luanda, Angola.
South Africa’s Competition Tribunal and the South African Reserve Bank have approved the transaction.
OACL, now a fully owned subsidiary of Grindrod, currently operates four container ships, each with a capacity of between 800 and 1,200 20-foot-equivalent units.
The carrier covers all major ports in South Africa, Namibia and Angola and provides feeder services for ocean container lines as well as warehousing, distribution and inland distribution.
Safmarine, which serves Africa, the Middle East and India, was merged into its parent Maersk Line in late 2011 in a cost-cutting drive. This resulted in the loss of about 240 jobs and the closure of Safmarine’s corporate headquarters in Antwerp and regional offices in China, South Africa and India.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.
